


A Conversation

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-10-13
Updated: 2006-10-13
Packaged: 2017-12-04 20:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the middle of it, Cass and Rose speak</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before we knew all the details of Titans East.

The clash of the Titans was proving every bit as brutal and violent as its orchestrator could have envisioned, as each countermeasure to the do-gooding whelps moved into place. Deathstroke had known better to send like for like, but he had, possibly, underestimated either Robin or Ravager, as his best fighter on the game board was maneuvered into fighting her direct opposite.

Batgirl was a vicious fighter at that, fully trained from birth in nothing but violence. Genetically, she was superior human stock, and it made her more than a match for Ravager's serum-enhanced physiology. She remained silent as she fought, but eerily so did the Ravager. Swords crossed swords, and bodies wove into and away from one another, all in a dance of such deadly potential that no one missed the fact one of these two would not survive the fight.

Batgirl shifted into a move, and knew her mistake immediately, as Ravager managed to entangle her sword with the twin blades. There was a tension of both bodies as they strained, Cass trying to free her weapon, and Rose trying to hold it trapped. 

"Listen to me," Rose hissed. "I know he's got you convinced that he cares for you. I know what that is like. And he does need someone, Cass. But he's not well in his mind, hasn't been since he realized what Jericho did to him over the years."

"You can't tempt me from my course." Batgirl tried again to spin free, but Ravager anticipated, working within the precognitive mesh of her serum senses and the visions of this fight.

"I love my father," Rose told her in a low hiss. "But he is wrong with this fight against us. And you…you're tearing your real family apart doing this!"

"Why do you care?" Batgirl managed to get a small kick in, but Ravager kept her wrists tangled.

"Because they cared for me, when I had lost Daddy. Because Tim is raw and hurting from the inside out with all the losses he has had." Rose glared at her. "Don't stay away from them; no matter what has happened…they will take you back!"

"Fall down," Cass said evenly, not giving wither a visual or verbal reaction to Rose's plea for the Bats.

In the space of a microsecond, Rose processed the command, certain shifts of the body and made a hard choice. Her visions showed her losing the fight, apparently gravely injured. However, she knew Dick now, knew Tim. She had a hard time thinking that anyone raised in proximity to them could just be evil…she herself had been evil, and the Bats had pulled her free.

Batgirl lunged forward, her forehead making contact. Ravager fell back, losing control of her swords, and saw, more than felt, the sheer steel of Cass's blade part her flesh again as her back made contact with the ground. Batgirl immediately leaped away, rounding her team up from their losing battles, and leaving the real Titans to try and recover. It was Eddie that found Ravager, Eddie that saw the blood welling along the wound.

His shout got the others to the white haired girl quickly, and Robin was the one who crouched, to find Rose smiling at him. 

"It's not as bad as it looks. She nicked a bleeder," the daughter of Deathstroke said knowingly.

"But…"

"Robin, she's on our side," Rose whispered, before letting them give her first aid.

"How do you know that? You two were going to kill each other." Cyborg had seen the viciousness of the fight with more misgivings as to Rose's place on the team. He was going to have to insist she switch to her energy staves.

"That was never her intent…She's a better fighter than me. She let me carry her away from the fight, to protect her secret." Rose looked at Robin with hope. 

"She's done very bad things," Eddie said. "Why would she switch sides again?"

"Unless it was all a setup to go deep undercover?" Cassie suggested.

Only Robin had doubts; his jaw tight, witness to some of what had happened to Cass. When Rose covered his hand, binding the wound in her arm, he did not protest. It was the closest he could come to admitting hope that Rose was right.


End file.
